04/25/2011
Ten months in the presidential office, and Noynoy continues to stay in the campaign mode, laying the blame of his failure as a leader of the nation to the “cavalry” of problems and corruption at the feet of the previous administration.

In his Easter message, he said however, that the country will be able to rise from darkness and that the calvary of corruption with the government and the people working together.

“No matter how dark the episode we had been through, the advancement of honest and good governance, along with strong faith and cooperation, would be our foundation to overcome the calvary that we have to deal with as we came in (as the new administration),” he said.

It has been noted, however, that even as Noynoy continues to slam the old administration for the many “landmines” he claims was left by the old for his government and now the “calvary” of problems and corruption he says he has to carry in his administration, he has never quite identified just what those landmines are, and the cavalry of problems, save for the problem of corruption, which he anyway says that his honest and good governance, strong faith and cooperation as his foundation to overcome these landmines, no matter the “dark episode” of the Arroyo regime..... MORE

04/25/2011
AJDABIYA — Posted on the prized western gate of Ajdabiya are pictures of the missing, put there by Libyan families seeking word of loved ones lost in fighting in and around the strategic crossroads city.

“As things calm down, people are building up the courage to come out and report,” said Najim Miftah, a volunteer at the hospital. He has a binder of missing people that has doubled in two days with more than 70 new records.

Miftah has another 297 names saved on a computer filled with virtual folders containing photographs of the dead who have passed through the hospital, in the hope of helping families either identify a body or rule out the worst.

Five distraught men shuffled in on Saturday in to register two brothers of fighting age who disappeared in mid-March, a month of fluctuating front lines between forces loyal to Moamer Kadhafi and rebels seeking his ouster..... MORE

04/25/2011
TOKYO—Foreign tourists remain a rare sight more than a month after Japan suffered the most powerful earthquake in its history, as the nation grapples with power cuts and radiation leaks from a nuclear power plant.

April should be peak tourist season for Tokyo, famous for the brief but spectacular blossoming of its cherry trees, which signals the start of spring.

But in Asakusa, one of the capital’s oldest districts and home to the Senso-ji temple, a major tourist draw, there are no foreign faces to be seen.

“Before the earthquake, Asakusa was quite touristy and very well-known to foreigners,” rickshaw driver Yoshiaki Suzuki told AFP..... MORE

04/25/2011
The question is simple: Is Ferdinand Marcos a hero?
The answer is simple: No, he’s not!

And even if he qualifies as one, as all presidents become heroes after their death, Marcos’ abuses when he ruled the country with an iron hand during the dark years of martial law and the few years beyond it, supersede his importance in history.

All that is left in his name is his abuse of power during his long reign.

Marcos will be remembered as a murderer of political opponents, a prime violator of human rights, a plunderer, a liar and one who played god with the iron fist of a devil..... MORE

04/25/2011
It is the day after Easter, and here we are, mulling over an issue that still involves death and resurrection.

The issue is whether or not to bury the remains of former President Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (Cemetery of the Heroes). The debate has risen up once more, but unlike the Risen Christ, it seems more like a skeleton from a crypt in a horror movie.

(And anything “holy” about it is often muttered with a curse, but that’s beside the point.)
One thing is sure, this puts country’s 15th president on the spot. After all, it was the dead president who was mainly suspected of being the alleged mastermind of the Benigno Aquino II’s assassination over 25 years ago. Some might say the timing more or less sucks. For Benigno III, that is.

For how can he, son of the assassinated modern hero, allow the body of his late father’s arch-nemesis to rest in the resting place of heroes?.... MORE

04/25/2011
The holidays allowed me a breathing spell from the daily information battles we are waging on several fronts. With the peace and tranquility of the last few days, I am able to see the dust and din from a distance more clearly again, helping me make this post-Lenten recap of these foremost issues:

The Economy. Aquino III is clueless about oil and energy and the elite globalists’ geo-political machinations on them. Veteran reporter Jim Tucker reported this month that “By the end of the year 2012 (the Bilderbergers and other elite) want us paying $7 a gallon for gasoline (that’s $4 today)…” and Western ground troops into Libya, as suggested by Kissinger, is the next step to ensure this.

The fuel subsidy of around P500 million taken from the Value Added Tax is really paid for by Filipino fuel consumers while oil companies are paid in full (without a dip in their sales volumes) for oil that’s overpriced by transfer pricing to their mother companies.

Aquino III’s importation of 50 million liters of diesel fuel is a farce, a claimed “strategic stock” that will last only a few hours for 3.3 million diesel vehicles plus countless sea-going vessels.

The only solutions are a re-regulation and re-nationalization of the fuel industry, along with a restoration of the Marcos-era energy development program.

The economy is now on its 26th year of counter-democratic re-structuring as it continues to see the privatization of the nation’s wealth and the socialization of the tax burden. The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines found approval with the Energy Regulatory Commission to pass on its 3 percent franchise tax to consumers. That will be on top of the franchise tax that’s being passed on to us by power distributors such as Meralco (Manila Electric Co.).

It is immoral and patently illegal for those enjoying the privilege of a captive market to transfer their tax burden onto those who are entitled to these constitutionally-mandated basic services.

As the two passed-on franchise taxes will cost consumers 6 percent in additional burden, we ask: Is the fulfillment of one’s basic needs no longer a right but a privilege that people have to be heavily taxed for?
Then, there’s the issue of the minimum wage hike again, which will directly affect small-and-medium businesses and the lowest paid workers, many of whom will be retrenched, but spare transnational mega-corporations whose wage structures are already above minimum.

Former Sen. Ernesto Herrera, being the head of a US “labor” movement-sponsored unions’ federation that has always spoon fed his needed “capital,” has the temerity to write that “companies can afford the wage hike” even when he has never handled a private business that had to compete in the market.

On the other hand, Leftist labor movements that have nothing to show for still rely on the irrelevant minimum wage issue to maintain their illusion of relevance when the real issues are the exploitative, oligarchic government and the increasing “oligopolization” of the economy as small-and-medium enterprises are systematically being marginalized.
The Real Political Battles. Since both the Balay and Samar factions kowtow to the Yellow flag, as Aquino III and Marcos Jr. are united under the Marcos-Ochoa-Serapio-Tan law firm, and after Arroyo Comelec chairman Jose “Hocus PCOS” Melo was appointed by PeNoy to the multi-million Clark Development Corp., is there still any doubt about the Aquinorroyo zarzuela?

Such conflicts are par for the course in Philippine agnotology, i.e. the science of perpetrating ignorance, where anything and everything will be used to distract people’s minds from the real class exploitation happening on the real, live economic stage.

Another one is the reproductive health (RH) — now renamed RP for responsible parenthood (What the hell!). While it pits the triad of women, the Catholic hierarchy, and politicians against each other, there’s only one real loser — the people.

The bill, once enacted into law, makes the RH budget automatically appropriated in succeeding years. Politicians will get their RH medical buses with all the supplies and their large names plastered a la “Project of Congressman Piggy.” I knew there was a catch!

Meanwhile, as Kissinger’s National State Security Memorandum 200, entitled “Implications of Worldwide Population Growth for US Security and Overseas Interests,” cited with alarm the burgeoning populations of “ India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines… since it would quickly increase their relative political, economic, and military strength,” more people must be made aware of this other reason for the vigorous push for the RH bill.

Still, aside from the US planning to eliminate these “threats” through its contraceptive devices, it will also enable its pharmaceuticals — one of two US business mainstays alongside the defense industries — to enjoy a continuing bonanza by supplying these RH supplies. In the end, ALL Filipinos (women included) lose economically.

Then, while the PeNoy government lumbers, within its bowels operates the future US virus — the Akyat-Bayan gang that’s beholden to the oligarchs and kowtows to US diktats in every way but hides in leftist gibberish. This Etta Rosales-Gloria Arroyo bunch of fresher clones with populist pretensions, supported by the likes of ABS-CBN, is reportedly “really powerful” these days, so much so that other leftists who may want positions now have to apply with them.

The real giveaway for this group, however, is its rabid support for the CCT (Conditional Cash Transfer) doleouts that only create a culture of mendicancy and dependency, even to the USAID and IMF-WB.
We’ll have more on cultural, global and other issues in our Friday column.

While President Aquino expressed confidence that his administration will win its battle against corruption, a ranking member of the House minority yesterday indicated that the lack of political will in Aquino puts into serious doubts his capability to end graft and corruption.

Maguindanao Rep. Simeon Datumanong said Aquino’s campaign to eradicate corruption entails political will to carry it out applied with an assurance of justice.

“The people will work with the government to fight corruption and any evil of society as long as government rules with justice, fairness and respect for established rights,” Datumanong said..... MORE

The recent relief of Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) deputy chief of staff for logistics (J4) Commodore Teddy Pan is not necessarily tantamount to his guilt over the alleged P400 million petroleum, oil and lubricant (POL) scam, AFP deputy chief of staff for civil military operations (J7) Commodore Jose Miguel Rodriguez, concurrent spokesman for the AFP, said.

Rodriguez added Pan was requested to “step aside” while an investigation of AFP Inspector General Vice Admiral Mario Catacutan on the alleged anomaly is ongoing.

“Commodore Pan was not relieved for cause, it is customary for a unit where there is an investigation ongoing for the unit head to step aside because while we are ensuring an impartial investigation, what is equally important is the perception,” Rodriguez said.... MORE

04/25/2011
Local government officials yesterday said there was little hope of finding any more survivors after a landslide struck a remote gold mining area in Compostela Valley province, with 22 persons likely killed in the disaster.

Two days after tons of debris and mud washed over the miners’ makeshift tunnels dug into mountainsides, rescuers pulled out four more bodies and said the 17 persons still officially listed as missing were likely dead.

“Based on our assessment, it would be difficult to find any more survivors on the third day of operations,” municipal Mayor Celso Sarenas of Pantukan town told a news conference..... MORE

A counterpart bill to press for a P125 daily across-the-board legislated wage increase has been made by an opposition member of the Senate’s majority bloc.

Sen. Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. is pushing a new round of salary increase for private sector workers despite earlier pronouncements made by Malacañang, ruling out the possibility of such this year.

Palace’s position was further reinforced by the Employers’ Confederation of the Philippines (Ecop) which claimed that a P125 a day legislated wage hike first introduced by a party-list representatives in lower house early this year, would prove to be very costly, translating nearly P300 billion in additional expenses for companies.

Revilla, president of the Lakas-Kampi-CMD party, underscored the government’s mandate in providing decent compensation even those in the private sector..... MORE

04/25/2011
Sen. Edgardo Angara reiterated his call for the creation of more health centers in the countryside, which he believes would dramatically decrease the high infant mortality rate in the country.

According to Lancet, a global medical journal, more than 2 million babies are stillborn each year throughout the globe — and about half could have been prevented with proper health care during the pregnancy. The study further explained that most of these stillbirths were caused by delivery complications, infections, and congenital abnormalities.

“Unfortunately, this is commonplace in developing countries like the Philippines. Due to the dearth of health care facilities and qualified medical professionals in the province, expectant mothers skip regular checkups which might detect curable and preventable illnesses in the unborn baby,” Angara said.

Angara authored Senate Bill 2629, the Community Health Delivery and Health Team Placement Act, which seeks to establish Rural Health Centers in every town and barangay. This Local Health Unit shall be manned by at least four medical professionals..... MORE

A law on a “regulated” use of mobile phone while driving is proposed to be enforced in the country in the light of growing concern over road-related deaths.

Sen. Manuel Villar Jr. initiated the filing of Senate Bill 2709 allowing “texting” or “calls” while driving, provided that it is being operated “hands-free.”

In the bill, “the use of mobile phones for text messaging and or for dial-up communication shall be allowed while driving all types of vehicles, provided that different hands-free accessories shall be connected therein.”.... MORE

Thus said Immigration Commissioner Ricardo David Jr. as he warned the public against the activities of extortion syndicates whose members have allegedly been going around and dropping his name to solicit money from foreigners.

In a statement issued yesterday, David said reports reached him that people claiming to be immigration agents have been extorting money from foreigners, alleging that they were acting on orders of the new immigration chief..... MORE